By this point, everyone was sure that Tom was not within the village. If he was not in the village, he must be outside.

However, why did he leave? Why was he chasing rabbits? And why didn't he return?

There were still many questions to be answered. Zephyr took a deep breath and looked at the village road leading to the outside. It connected to another road that led to the forest.

"Trolls, goblins, and other monsters…There are a lot of things that can kill a person out there," Zephyr noted in his mind.

As Zephyr pondered, Moss furrowed his brows, thinking about something. Finally, he decided to speak.

"I heard Tom mention the rabbits. He once said rabbits killed his daughter. At that time, everyone thought it was the ramblings of a madman. Now… I…" He choked.

His words captured everyone's attention.

"He said that?" Aurelia asked.

"Hmm…" Moss nodded.

"How can a rabbit kill a child?"

"I don't know. Most of us didn't take him seriously. And those who did thought he was… You know… going mad. He was a grieving father, after all."

Strong emotions can cause people to hallucinate and create made-up scenarios in their minds. It was not beyond reason.

Zephyr placed his hand on his chin, rubbing it gently.

And the notion that rabbits can't kill people—would that even make sense in a magical world? Here, everything was supposed to be possible. A mutated rabbit turning into a mindless monster and killing everyone was also possible.

"Sigh."

Zephyr never expected the situation to take this many twists and turns.

Initially, they approached the problem as a simple missing person case. They expected to find Tom somewhere within the village or nearby. But reality was different.

Now, a new mystery was before them.

"Are we going to look for him outside?" Moss asked, his voice clearly betraying his expectation.

It was not a question. He wanted them to go search for Tom outside. He needed their help to find Tom. The mages before him were his only hope.

"We could do that." Aurelia eyed Zephyr.

Meanwhile, unknown to them, Zephyr's attention had shifted to the greyhound they had brought.

Was he going to use the sensory resonance once again?

Aurelia panicked.

Zephyr was still healing. He shouldn't do that again.

She raised her hand, intending to tap on his shoulder and stop him. However, Zephyr slowly stood before she could.

His eyes, gazing at the dog, snapped to the side, looking past them to the village behind. The dozens of houses sparsely populating the area between the flax fields came into his view.

They were on higher ground, on top of a hill, so they could see far into the distance.

The rest of them followed Zephyr's eyes, looking in the direction he was watching. There, they could see a bunch of men gathering like ants.

Not just men; there were women and children, too.

The people were hurriedly walking in the same direction. A mob was forming.

"What happened?" everyone wondered simultaneously.

"Moss, what is the commotion?"

Zephyr's inquiry was met with silence.

"Do you know?" he repeated.

Moss snapped out of his daze and shook his head.

"We should go check it out," Zephyr said, turning to Aurelia. "Can you fly us over there?"

From the way the villagers were reacting, something serious was going on.

"With mysterious rabbits on the loose, it could be connected," Zephyr added.

Hearing this, the two intermediate mages nodded. They cast flight magic, bringing everyone along to the site of the commotion. Even the dog was brought along with them.

—

A few seconds later, they found themselves landing next to the mob. The villagers stopped what they were doing to look at their group.

Zephyr felt uncomfortable. He tucked his head under his hood. At the same time, his eyes peered past them, looking at an injured man lying on the ground.

The man bled from his mouth and torso. His left leg was twisted unnaturally. A gash, wider than a finger, was spreading from his abdomen to the chest. Fortunately… or unfortunately, he was unconscious, showing no sign of pain or movement.

The men and women working in the fields seemed to have come over to see the man. They were making a commotion, not knowing how to treat him.

Or that's what Zephyr thought until he began to hear their murmurs.

"The jinx must have done it."

"Who else could it be? We should have kicked him out of the village."

"He is bad luck."

"The poor man said he had seen the jinx yesterday. It must be why he is like that."

"That man jinxed his own daughter. No one who meets him has a good ending."

Nods

"Yes."

"Luckily, Moss brought the mages. We can ask them to help heal him."

"We should also ask them to banish Tom."

"Sshhh…" Suddenly, a man hushed the others, showing distress. "Who asked you to say his name out loud? Whoever speaks his name will be prone to accidents."

"Ah! I forgot." The other man raised his hands and placed them on his head, worried.

One by one, they were silently cursing Tom. Zephyr felt his forehead twitch.

They were watching an injured man lying on the ground while cursing at another person. The bunch of villagers was a mob. They were talking like one and behaving like one. They were not helpful at all.

Unknowingly, Zephyr clenched his fist.

"Go ask them what happened," Zephyr ordered, looking at Moss. His voice came out more forcefully than he intended, scaring Moss a little.

"Yes."

Moss strode into the middle of the mob to ask questions. His voice was calm and collected as he spoke.

Zephyr and the rest walked towards the injured man as they spoke.

The man lying on the ground bled quite heavily. His eyelids were twitching.

The villagers parted to the side, making way for the mages to walk forward. Seeing them come closer, a woman who was crouching nearby raised her head.

With teary eyes, she looked at them and clasped her hands.

"Sir Mages, please save my husband. Please!" she begged.

"I will pay you anything. Please." She bowed.

"Elenor, go check his condition."

"Yes, young lady."

Elenor and Aurelia were a step faster, closing in on the injured man. Zephyr followed them, his eyes wandering to look around.

The place they stood was familiar to him. They had passed by here when they were looking for Tom.

'They said the man had seen Tom. It checks out.'

His eyes returned to the injured man. As Elenor crouched down near the man, he followed her and sat next to him.

Elenor swiftly moved her hands, tapping over the man's body, looking at his injuries. It seemed like all mages were trained to assess injuries and treat them.

Previously, Aurelia had done the same while looking at his injuries.

"From the looks of it, he seems to have fallen onto something hard. Two of his ribs are broken. The left knee slipped out of place. The gash, though not deep, is big enough to cause considerable blood loss. I also think he has some internal damage."

Elenor paused to check his pulse. Fortunately, his heart was still beating.

"If he had fallen on his head, he would have died," she added.

This made the wife, standing next to them, cry even harder.

"Can… can he be healed? Can you save his life?" she asked desperately.

"It's possible." Elenor nodded robotically.

Hearing her stiff reply, Zephyr could sense some hesitation. She was hiding something.

'It is possible with an asterisk, isn't it?'

Saving his life would be relatively easy. But healing him to his best condition seemed to be impossible without the right potions.

"He would need to rest for three to four months with an injury like that," Elenor added, confirming his thoughts.

Then, she asked the villagers to bring clean clothes. Clothes were needed to bandage the injuries.

Meanwhile, Elenor cast a spell. A rune came alive in her hand, dancing for a few seconds before flowing into the injured man's body. A pale blue glow shrouded him for a few seconds.

While the glow existed, Zephyr saw dust and debris clinging to the wound being pushed out.

"What kind of magic is that?" he asked.

"It's simple cleaning magic. When it is used on wounds, it will clean the wound. It works better than water."

"What about the bacteria?"

"Bacteria?" Elenor tilted her head, confused.

"Uh! Nothing."

Zephyr remembered this world was quite backward in most scientific disciplines. They were limited in their understanding of the world and didn't have an analogue to germ theory.

The words "bacteria," "virus," and "germs" were not in their language.

'It's miasma and stuff, right?' he wondered.

The mages see the world as elements. Miasma is a dark element that develops on an injury when it is festering. Although what happens is the reverse, they use this theory of clearing miasma from a wound periodically to heal.

'Mages must be able to sense this miasma directly because of the mana component in everything. This also means they never had to develop a microscope to sense microorganisms.'

'Their senses are acting like a crutch, stopping them from gaining a better understanding.'

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